Category Archives: Palin

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin took out time during a anti-abortion dinner to criticize President Obama for supporting abortion rights. Palin spoke to a crowd at the Vanderburgh County Right to Life banquet Thursday night.
Palin and Republican National Convention Chairman Michael Steele both spoke Thursday night at the Indiana event.

Politico reports:

“Palin drew approximately 3,000 people to the Vanderburgh County Right to Life fund raising dinner in Evansville, an annual banquet that typically attracts some of the GOP’s top national talent. Her sold-out appearance in a local exhibition hall prompted organizers to set up a paid closed-circuit broadcast at a nearby auditorium for a large spill-over crowd and led local authorities to close down nearby streets.”

Palin said that being pregnant with Trig, born with Down’s Syndrome has given her the opportunity to live out her own anti-abortion beliefs.

Newser reports:

“The moment he was born, I knew that moment my prayers had been answered,” Palin said. “Trig is a miracle. He is the best thing that ever happened to me and I want other women to have that opportunity.”

Palin believes that instead of allowing abortions women with unwanted pregnancies should give the child up for adoption.

The dinner was attended by nearly 3,000 people. The Right to Life banquet is an said to be the nation’s largest event.

The dinner was the first time since the 2008 presidential campaign that Palin has been outside of Alaska for a major public event.

Sarah Palin won’t be taking 31 percent of the federal stimulus package that could help out Alaska. She says that the money is ‘timely, targeted and temporary’ and could have strings attached.

Palin will accept the $128 million in Medicaid stimulus. This announcement comes as Alaska is facing a $2.6 billion deficit over this year and next from low oil prices. Almost all of the state revenues come for oil.
Fox News reports:

“I can’t attest to every fund that’s being offered the state in the stimulus package will be used to create jobs and stimulate the economy, so I’m requesting only those things that I know will,” Palin said at a news conference at the Capitol. “Public discussion will have to ensue on all those other dollars that some will say ‘you left on the table.”‘

Palin disappointed the education sector of her state by refusing the $160 million that was offered in education monies.

“We believe that we can make very good use of the funds, not only in job preservation but also in adding new positions to ultimately use these funds to increase student achievement for our neediest children,” Anchorage Superintendent of Schools Carol Comeau said in a news release.

She is not the only Governor who’s saying that they only want a portion of the money though. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana are also only taking a piece of the pie. Texas Governor Rick Perry is turning down $555 million of the package that would expand his state’s unemployment benefits.

Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Charlie Crist of Florida on the other hand are thankful for the package.

“After soliciting and accepting more federal dollars per capita than any other governor in the union, Sarah Palin’s decision today to deny the state of Alaska over half a billion dollars in recovery and reinvestment funds – including millions for schools, energy and public safety – appears to be nothing more than political posturing,” said Brad Woodhouse, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.

“At a time when her state is suffering, Alaska’s working families cannot afford a governor that puts her political future ahead of the needs of the state and its families.”

“Levi tries to visit Tripp every single day, but Bristol makes it nearly impossible. She tells him he can’t take the baby to our house because she doesn’t want him around ‘white trash’!” Bristol won’t even allow him to watch the baby for a few hours — unless he’s babysitting!

Last month the teen said that she and Levi had planned on marrying once they were out of school.

This bit of news is likely to anger mother, Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. She has had harsh words in the past about the media and their coverage of her and her family. In particular bloggers irked her.
CBS 4 Denver reports:

Last February, mom Sarah Palin expressed her anger at media coverage of her candidacy, particularly “anonymous, pathetic bloggers” who she says spread falsehoods about her.

Sarah Palin isn’t admitting she was wrong to take the kids with her on government trips but she will be paying back a bit for those trips. The cost out of her pocket is nearly $7,000 as Alaska looks into her expenses and if she has been abusing her power.

The Alaskan legislature has been examining Sarah Palin’s abuses of power and the cost to the taxpayers. She has now said she’ll pay back some of those costs for bringing her kids with her but she is not admitting that she did anything wrong and only followed the advice of her advisors. In fact she is saying the complaints against her are “an obvious political weapon, with an associate of a political adversary filing this and making it public — against state law — just before the election.”

The state though is saying that their governor has abused her power.

Frank Gwartney, a retired electrical power lineman from Anchorage had filed the complaint about Palin’s use of state funds covering her children’s travel expenses.

“Sarah had run on this platform of ethics and cleaning up the state,” Gwartney said. “It’s fairly hypocritical. She’s just repeating the same thing everyone else has done.”

Governor Sarah Palin has agreed to reimburse Alaska $6,800 to cover the costs on nine trips that her kids took between 2007 and 2008.

She made the announcement on Tuesday that she will be settling the ethics complaint that the Personnel Board filed in October. She has agreed to pay back because she wants to let the people know that she “adheres to the highest level of ethics,” attorney Thomas Van Flien has been quoted as saying.

Palin aslo has announced that she will not be using the Chevy Suburban that the state provided any longer. She had discovered the free ride wasn’t so free after all. State officials told her on Monday that she will be paying taxes on her personal use of the car. She’s also being told to pay taxes on all that expense money she got to live in her own home in Wasilla.

The actual bill has yet to get to Palin’s desk but it is estimated just for the traveling brood to come to $6,800.

“This is a big state, and I am obligated to — and intend to — keep Alaskans informed and meet with them as much as I can, from Barrow to Marshall to Ketchikan,” Palin said in a written statement. “At the same time, I am blessed to have a large and loving family, and the discharge of my duties should not prevent me from spending time with them.”

Sarah Palin is telling the media to stay away from her kids. She is tired of what she calls malicious gossip about her and her children. Political observers counter that the Alaskan governor can’t have her cake and not let the media eat.

The governor has trotted her kids out on political functions allowing them to be snapped by the media. While she didn’t give many interviews during the presidential election she did make sure that there were plenty of photo ops involving the children. She had no problem at that time in allowing her pregnant teenage daughter being pictured during that time.

When the media said that Bristol and Levi Johnston were high school drop outs she fired back that they were enrolled in correspondence classes.

“It’s all about the family,” she said. “I’m wired in a way that I can take the criticism. I can take the shots. But any mother would want to protect their children from lies and scandalous reporting.”

She is saying that the media is targeting her and her family. She is also saying that she is being singled out. That’s not the case. Political families are often under the microscope. They are media fodder, just ask the Bush girls whose antics were often front page news in their father’s early days as president.

Already the Obama girls are being photographed as they venture out to school.

Right or wrong when one chooses a political career the media will look deeper. It’s one of the prices a family pays for being front and center for their country.